Two of a Kind
by Louise Rose
Summary: A cross over with casualty and Holby City. After a major incident can Jac Naylor and Ruth Winters find a friend in one another?
1. Chapter 1

Two of a Kind

By Louise Rose

Chapter 1

Ruth Winters was as cold as her name. She never socialised so she didn't really have any real friends. She woke up everyday purely to do a job, no other reason. Although, she was proud of what she had achieved, not many people could have gone through the childhood she had and got as far as being a doctor.

And to think she wanted to throw everything away a few months ago. How she wished she had never written that journal and attempted suicide. Over three months had passed since that night and she was still convincing people that she was Ok, even when she wasn't. As she lingered over that thought there was a knock at her door.

"I made you a coffee, Ruth," said a soothing voice that belonged to Toby De Silva, Ruth's fellow F2 who she worked at the hospital with.

She looked confused by his kind gesture and nodded in thanks.

"I'm gonna head to work in a bit, would you like me to walk with you?"He asked thoughtfully.

But it was kind gestures like this that got to Ruth. She was 24 and perfectly able to get herself to work.

"No, Toby, I think I can manage, I'm not gonna top myself on the way to work, am I?" She knew her reply was unfair but couldn't seem to help it.

"God, sorry Ruth, I was only trying to be nice, you should try it some time," Toby left the room feeling his good deed had gone unappreciated once again.

Ruth didn't mean to be rude to Toby, she didn't even dislike him, but there was something that irritated her about him. Perhaps she thought he'd had an easy life compared to her, he didn't have to pay his own way through medical school like she did. Or perhaps she disliked his upper-middle class upbringing and his well spoken voice.

--

Meanwhile on the other side of the city, Jac Naylor a registrar was getting ready for her day. Jac lived alone, she 

wasn't the friendliest of folk around these parts. Her ideas of how to reach the top had earned her a bad reputation at Holby City Hospital.

Recent events had made her think more carefully about her actions. Was it really worth being this cold, manipulative bitch just for the sake of her career? Maybe she needed friends after all. Not necessarily friends in high places, just real friends.

Of course this quest for friends was going to be difficult. Nobody would trust her now, not after everything she had done. Everybody saw how she broke Joseph Byrne's heart and tore his family apart. The younger staff felt intimidated by her and everyone she worked with feared being stitched up by her. Or as some staff members like to call it, "Naylored" by her.

She put the thoughts of her past to the back of her mind as she pulled down the visor on her helmet and started the engine on her motorbike. Perhaps today would be the day she made a real friend.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Ruth, are you gonna do anything today or just sit there looking miserable?"

Ruth looked up to Kelsey standing over the bench she was sitting on in the hospital garden.

"Zoe sent me to look for you, you're break ended fifteen minutes ago," Kelsey informed the confused looking F2.

"Oh, I didn't notice the time, sorry," Ruth lied. She had actually been hoping that she might be forgotten about and not had to go back to work.

Kelsey shook her head and walked back to the E.D. Ruth slowly got up and started to slowly walk towards the doors thinking about how things would be better for everyone if she hadn't woken up from that coma. She felt pretty sure that Abs had had enough of trying to make a decent person out of her. She just didn't understand why he cared so much, everyone else who had encountered her frosty personality had just avoided her and stayed out of her way.

It was quiet day in the E.D and Ruth hated days like these. At least when it was busy she had something to take her mind off how miserable she felt most of the time. Times like these left her alone with her thoughts, which troubled her. Why couldn't she be happy?

Upstairs on the wards Jac was doing the rounds. She hated this part of the day as she found talking to the patients hard, be it good news or bad news. It was probably her lack of bedside manner and her disbelief in making any connection with the patients at all. She'd never let herself grow attached to anyone since the death of her parents, everyone she met left her eventually as would the patients.

She wished she could make enough of a connection to just to gain their trust, they always looked terrified when she talked to them. But she just couldn't do it, she didn't have Maddy Young's reassuring smile or Sam Strachan's heart-warming eyes, even Joseph Byrne was blessed with posh accent to please the patients. Jac on the other hand was blessed with terrifying cheek bones and a sharp tongue.

She breathed a sigh of relief as she finished up with the last patient. At least soon she would be in theatre doing what she loved and what she was good at. The truth was whatever awful things Jac had done you couldn't call her a bad surgeon. She often took stupid risks to benefit her career but she nearly always came out successful.

As she walked to the lift to get her morning coffee that she rewarded herself with after the rounds everyday, Lola Griffin, walked into the ward with an announcement.

"The emergency department has phoned and confirmed a major incident at a block of flats. They need as many doctors down there as possible and requested that some of our surgeons go."

Jac listened carefully to the announcement. Perhaps this would be a chance to prove herself and get that promotion she'd been desperately seeking for so long. This was her chance to play the heroine.

"I'll go," she replied enthusiastically. Everyone looked at her confused. They were all thinking, what the hell is she up to now? Lola took a moment before nodding and asking Joseph to go with her.

"Keep her out of trouble and watch your back, you never know what she's got up her sleeve." Joseph nodded as Lola offered a warning.

Jac heard these words as and she couldn't deny that it hurt her a little bit. She was never going to be given a chance to prove herself anything but bad and Lola's words dented her blackened heart.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"OK, everyone gather round please," Charlie Fairhead requested in the E.D. "I'm sure you know we've got a major incident on our hands but there's too many people in here and not enough out there, so we need some of you lot to go with Jeff and Dixie."

"I'll go Charlie" said Toby trying to be helpful.

"Actually, I think you should go Ruth, you could do with some more hands on experience," said Charlie smiling at a blank Ruth.

Ruth nodded and went to get a yellow jacket. She wished they'd just let Toby go, she really couldn't care less about "hands on experience". She didn't want to be here and she definitely didn't want to be at some block of flats telling people who had no chance that they were going to make it. Convincing people that everything would be fine wasn't one of Ruth's specialities. The one time she did, the patient died and she was left with nothing but guilt.

"Come on treacle, give us a smile!" joked Jeff as he patted Ruth on the back gesturing her to follow him and Dixie.

Ruth scowled but quickly picked up her pace to keep up with the light hearted paramedics. She sat awkwardly in the back in the back of the ambulance listening to Jeff and Dixie's debate on who was the most drunk a few nights ago. This was why she didn't socialise, why on earth would she want to get off her face and then discuss it the next day, how unprofessional, she thought.

As the journey continued, Ruth hoped the ambulance might break down or it would be revealed that the major incident was a hoax or even a drill, anything just to get out of it. But before she knew it they had arrived.

As she stepped out of the back of the ambulance she looked over to see two doctors with Curtis and Snezana who she didn't recognise.

These two doctors were Jac and Joseph. Jac looked around the scene, taking in the atmosphere. It was complete chaos but here she was ready to save the day.

"I hope you're not going to try any extreme heroics," whispered Joseph to Jac so the paramedics couldn't hear him. "Just remember these are people's lives you're toying with."

Jac frowned at Joseph, "I'm just here to do my job."

"Yes, you always are, aren't you? 'Just doing your job'," Joseph smirked as he spoke before walking off to join Ruth and the other paramedics.

Jac sighed and followed him. She had so many regrets now. Even if she did do something heroic today, it would only be overshadowed by her past. Why couldn't the past be left in the past? It had to be dragged up with her everywhere.

"I'm Dixie, this is Jeff and this our F2, Ruth Winters. I understand you and your friend are going to be helping us today?" Dixie began discussing the situation with Joseph.

Joseph raised an eyebrow and said slightly sarcastically, "I'm Joseph Byrne and this is my 'friend' Jac Naylor."

Ruth tilted her head slightly and looked at Jac. "You're Jac Naylor?" Everyone turned at looked at her as this was the first thing she'd said for about twenty minutes.

"Oh, we've heard all about you..." said Dixie looking at Jeff and smirking.

Jac frowned and looked at Joseph who was grinning contently to himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Two of a kind

Part 4

After a thirty second long awkward silence which felt like an hour, Jac finally decided to say something.

"What would you like me to do?" she asked Dixie as she tried to shake off her "reputation."

"Well the fire fighters are saying its safe for a couple of us to go in now, so if you'd like to that and perhaps Mr. Byrne could help the casualties outside the building," Dixie suggested.

Jac looked at the burning block of flats, it didn't look that safe to her, in fact in looked like it could collapse at any minute. She pondered whether or not to take up Dixie's offer for a few seconds before deciding she'd be better risking her life than listening the Joseph's snide remarks.

"Ok I'll go in, who's coming with me?" Jac asked, surely they wouldn't send her in alone. She glanced at Ruth hopefully.

As Jac caught Ruth's eye, Ruth quickly looked away, staring at the ground. She wondered why Jac was staring at her, why would she want to go on a potentially fatal mission with someone who was more of an ice queen that her. After twenty seconds of everyone twitching and trying to avoid eye contact with Jac, Ruth looked up and agreed to go with her.

"I'll guess I'll go then," said Ruth unenthusiastically, what did she have to lose anyway. Surely being in a burning building was better than listing to Jeff and Dixie's childish banter.

Jac smiled slightly and gestured Ruth to follow her as they headed towards the entrance of the flats. Ruth nodded and trudged along behind.

"I could do with the experience after all", Ruth muttered to herself under her breath, shaking her head.

"Did you say something?" Jac said looking a bit confused.

"No," said Ruth quickly, "nothing important anyway." She nervously smiled at Jac then quickly looked away again.

Jac just shook her head and kept walking towards the building. She suddenly realised who Ruth was, turns out she wasn't the only one with a reputation, she knew she looked familiar. Jac remembered seeing in the local paper about a junior doctor for the E.D attempting suicide and Ruth was that doctor. She wondered if it was such a good idea going into the flats with someone that was probably mentally unstable. Even if Jac had done some unforgivable things, at least she always knew her own head and wasn't likely to throw herself out of a fifth floor window. She 

decided now wasn't the time to be sizing Ruth's ability up and decided to just hope for the best.

"Are we going in then Dr. Winters?" asked Jac, just to check Ruth was actually going to go in with her.

Ruth nodded and said, "Should we split up when we get in there?" Ruth thought she was perfectly capable to handle the situation alone without some scary surgeon minding her.

"I think we should probably stay together, just in case something happens," replied Jac, seeing that Ruth was clearly annoyed that her idea had been shut down. But there was no way she was going to let a junior doctor wander alone into a situation like that. If something happened to one of them the other would be blamed and neither them needed anymore of a reputation.

Meanwhile Joseph and the paramedics were helping the walking wounded by the ambulances. Suddenly there was a bang, which sounded like extremely loud thunder. The fire fighters came running over to Dixie informing her that the staircase had collapsed and the two female doctors had just gone in.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Sorry it's been ages!

"RUTH! CAN YOU HERE ME?" Dixie shouted into the radio, naively hoping she would get a reply, instead all she got was a lot of crackling.

"Jac, are you there?" Joseph was doing the same thing, trying to reach Jac, perhaps not quite as desperately as Dixie.

Dixie looked and Jeff hoping her partner in crime might have a cunning plan to find the two doctors.

"Do you think we should get Charlie to send some more help?" Offered Jeff, trying to be helpful.

Dixie nodded and Curtis went off the call for a couple more doctors to come and help them search for Jac and Ruth.

Meanwhile inside the collapsed building, Ruth was desperately trying to wake up an unconscious Jac. "C'mon, please don't do this to me now, we're already gonna be a in a load of trouble." She was shaking her a bit harder than maybe she should have been, but eventually it worked, Jac slowly came round, just in time to see a bit more more of the building collapse, narrowly missing them, but trapping them in a very confined space.

Back outside, Charlie had sent Toby De Silva and Zoe Hana to the scene. It had been decided that Toby and Jeff would go with the fire fighters to look for Ruth and Jac and Zoe would stay outside with Joseph to help the other casualties.

Jeff put on his helmet and put the medical kit on his pack and gave Toby a thumbs up. Toby less that enthusiastically slowly put his helmet on and put his hand over his mouth as if he was about to be sick.

"C'mon mate, now's no time to be getting nervous, let's go and be heroes!" joked Jeff as he patted Toby on the back.

"Ok, let's just find them and get out of there," muttered Toby in very unherioc voice.

Meanwhile, Jac was beginning to freak out. "Are you okay?" Ruth asked, then backtracked to say "sorry stupid question really."

"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just... small spaces..." Jac replied feeling ashamed, "the other kids in the foster home used to lock me in cupboards and stuff when I was younger, I guess it's kinda stuck with me."

"Oh right," said Ruth not really knowing what to say, as she was more afraid of not being found that the small space.

"Do you think they'll come for us soon?" asked Jac, secretly thinking that no one would care about her, she just hoped Ruth was more popular.

"Probably, I guess they all came through for me before," Ruth wasn't as sure as she sounded, since she hadn't really been very grateful when she woke up from her coma, maybe they wouldn't bother this time, and she knew what people thought about Jac, so it wasn't like they'd be a massive loss.

"Came through for you before? Was that when you tried to top yourself?" Jac asked, quickly realising Ruth didn't know she knew about that.

"How do you know about that?" Asked Ruth, suddenly feeling very exposed.

"Everyone knows, it was a junior doctor from the E.D, Harry Harper sold your journal to the press, he felt the hospital had let you down or something, I only realised it was you today though, it's not like everyone knows exactly who you are." Jac replied, trying not to sound too stalkerish. "I mean it's not like people don't know stuff about me, I saw your face, when they said my name, word get's around in this place."

"It would seem that way, I guess people think they know everything about me now, but I don't think they ever will," said Ruth shaking her head. "The reason I don't find small spaces scary is because I used to hide in the cupboard, when my Dad was drunk and shouting at my mum, I see them as safe places, I bet no one knew that."

"There's so much people don't about me too, I'm not always a complete..." Jac began but was quickly interrupted but Toby and Jeff.

"RUTH! JAC! ARE YOU IN HERE, IT'S JEFF AND TOBY" Jeff was shouting into the building, he was only metres away but he couldn't see them.

Jac and Ruth both breathed a sigh of relief for someone had come for them after all.


End file.
